Melba Liston
Melba Doretta Liston (January 13, 1926 – April 23, 1999) was an American jazz musician noted for being the first woman trombonist to break into big bands in the 1940s. Early Life Liston was born in 1926, in Kansas City, the very center of blues and swing in America at the time. The city was run by gangsters but entertained and amused by musicians. Filled with nightclubs, the city became home to a large population of renowned musicians, from band leaders Count Basie and Benny Moten to saxophonists Lester Young and Charlie Parker, and even pianist Mary Lou Williams. The city was full of music especially in the African American Community. At an early age, reflective and good with math, Liston invented a number system to help her remember the intervals of her favorite songs. Music didn’t just flow through Kansas City but also young Liston’s home. Everyday, the music of Cab Calloway, Count Basie and Jimmy Lunceford would reach every corner of the house from her family’s Majestic radio. At this point, a life of music for Liston was almost inevitable. At the age of seven, Liston’s mother bought her a trombone after seeing her fascinated by one behind the shop window. She taught herself how to play the trombone, with encouragement from her grandfather, who played the guitar. She would sit on the porch and play hours with her grandfather everyday. From him, she learned to play some spirituals along with some folk songs. With arms too short to reach the sixth and seventh positions on the trombone, she learned to reach them by awkwardly turning her head to the side. The growth of Liston’s musical potential further progressed after she moved to Los Angeles in 1937 at the age of ten. The music education of public schools at the time proved to be more than adequate. At school, Liston befriended saxophonist Dexter Gordon and instrumentalist Eric Dolphy. Alma Hightower, a female music teacher, was the biggest figure in propelling Liston towards a music career. Hightower was employed by the Works Progress Administration during the depression to supervised children activities under the Parks and Recreation Department. An artist herself, Hightower hand picked children with music talents and volunteered to mentor them. She continued to do so even after the WPA program was terminated. Hightower led Liston and other young talents in a band called Miss Hightower and Her Melodic Dots where they gained precious exposure performing at parks, schools and churches. At the age of 16, Liston got her very first job, as a trombonist, in the pit orchestra of Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles, led by Bardu Ali. Her music career officially started at that moment 4. Career Melba Liston began her musical career at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles after joining the musicians union at the age of seventeen, where she played in a pit band. A year later she joined Gerald Wilson’s band and traveled with them all over the country. It was through Wilson’s band that she met and played for Duke Ellington in New York 1. She joined Dizzie Gillespie’s big band briefly in 1948, then rejoined Wilson’s band with singer Billie Holiday on a tour south 3. Melba stopped playing music and got a job for the Los Angeles Board of Education in the early 1950’s, tired of the struggle of being a female jazz musician in the mid 20th century 2. In the mid 50’s, Melba did some work for films, such as The Ten Commandments and The Prodigal. At this time, Dizzy Gillespie convinced Melba to join him in touring the world in places like the Middle East and Asia. Back in the music scene, she played for the band and wrote many of the arrangements 3. In 1958, Liston created an all-woman quintet 2. In the same year, she recorded her only album as bandleader, called Melba and Her Bones, in which she composed 4 of the 12 pieces 3. In the late 50’s and early 60’s, Melba began to play the trombone less and write more arrangements. In 1958, Melba met Randy Weston, a jazz pianist. She played and arranged on many of his albums. In 1959, she joined the Quincy Jones orchestra, playing for the musical Free and Easy and touring Europe 2. In the 1960’s, Melba wrote for many notable musicians including Marvin Gaye and Duke Ellington, arranging and performing with various groups throughout the decade. In 1973, she moved to Jamaica where she taught at the Jamaica School of Music 3. In 1985 Liston suffered a stroke that made her incapable of playing, but she continued to write music until her death in 1999 2. Collaborations and Arrangements Throughout her career, Melba Liston worked with a multitude of influential artists, performing and arranging alongside the likes of Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Gerald Wilson, Randy Weston, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Johnny Griffin, Milt Jackson, Marvin Gaye, and Abbey Lincoln. 1 She was an underrepresented and commonly underappreciated artist, often composing as a “ghostwriter”, meaning she would get paid under the table for another artist to take credit for her work. 5 Her most notable work came from her collaborations with Randy Weston, with whom she made six albums. The albums “Uhuru Africa” and “Highlife”, now considered to be masterpieces of jazz arrangements, demonstrated her incredible ability to blend African rhythms and typical jazz percussion on a large orchestral scale. Her works were completely original perspectives and ideas to the jazz genre that contributed to the free jazz/”New Thing” movement of the 1960's. With each artist that she worked with, she both taught them and learned from them, taking facets of their talents along with her own creativity and ingenuity to create her distinguishable sound. Social Impact Female jazz musicians faced a lot of erasure, with many claiming the women were not “real musicians” and should be blocked from jazz history. This fits into the context of Melba Liston’s time period, when jazz was evolving and many women like Melba Liston tried to enter the Jazz world. During World War II, when many men went off to battle, women entered the job industry. The music industry was no different, and women musicians filled in band positions until the war ended and male musicians began to go back to their jobs 1: Bryant, Clora. "Melba Liston." Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: U of California, 1998. 255-60. Print.. During the war, all-female bands would play to Rosie the Riveters that went to relax in clubs after their long factory shifts, but the female musicians rarely had the opportunity to play in big bands . Women who did break into the professional music scene were more often piano players and vocalists instead of brass players . Still, World War II was a period of opportunity for women to pursue professional musical careers, and as a female trombonist who played with big bands Melba Liston made her impact on jazz history. In 1941, African American communities were still affected by the Great Depression. California began to receive war contracts, and by mid-1943 it had received almost 10% of the national contracts . This resulted in a large expansion of the defense industry, and many people came to the city of Los Angeles in order to follow the job boom. As a result, the African American population increased by about 100,000 people . From this community resulted the Central Avenue musicians, from Art Farmer to Horace Tapscott, and was the setting of Melba Liston’s musical career . African American jazz musicians faced a constant battle in proving their music was art rather than entertainment, and female musicians had it even worse when it came to being taken seriously and struggling to not be taken advantage of. Melba Liston recalls that during her years on the road with big bands, she even faced sexual abuse from other musicians: “I’ve been going through that stuff all my life. I’d just go to the doctor and tell him, and that was that” . In 1949, Liston accompanied Gerald Wilson and Billie Holiday on a tour in the South, where they faced segregation and Jim Crow Laws 3: Fleet, Susan. "Jazz Trombonist Melba Liston." Jazz Trombonist Melba Liston. N.p., 25 May 2016. Web. 07 Mar. 2017. .. Among the sexism and racism, Liston faced the additional issue of audiences wanting dance music instead of bebop . Liston wanted to help push new forms of jazz forward, but was unfortunately constrained by her time period. However, Melba Liston never quit on her career and worked alongside famous artists, from Dizzy Gillespie and Gerald Wilson, to Quincy Jones and Marvin Gaye 2: "Melba Liston: Bones Of An Arranger." NPR. NPR, 09 July 2008. Web. 07 Mar. 2017. .. As a woman musician that worked in a male-dominated industry, Melba Liston created a counter-narrative that shows a female perspective of the past and jazz history. Melba Liston gained the respect of many male players and was a success story in a time and industry where few women were successful in gaining recognition. Style and Voice As a musician, Melba Liston was characterized by her soulful flavor of jazz trombone. Combined with her technical prowess, Liston was an asset to any band she played in. Many fellow musicians note that she had an unusual amount of "soul." Melba's style of arranging is representative of her preferred playing style. Her approach involved leaving the arrangement uncrowded, with moving lines allowing for smooth tunes. In the foreground there was usually bold, smooth-sounding brass instrumentalists, with other instruments blending in the background. Her arranging style was conducive to individual musicians to interject their own solos and flavor.Kaplan, E. (1999). Melba Liston: It's All from My Soul. The Antioch Review, 57(3), 415-425. doi:10.2307/4613889 References